Latest Catastrophe Headlines
All the headlines from our Catastrophe Topic Page, ordered by recency.
House Panel Unveils TRIA Extension Bill
Jun 17 2014 // Property/casualty insurers are welcoming the unveiling of a House terrorism insurance bill as a sign of progress even though there are provisions in it they oppose. Introduced by Rep. Randy Neugebauer, R-Texas, chairman of...
Cat Bond Buyers Listening to Storm Forecasters, Not Buffett
Jun 16 2014 // Bond buyers are betting more than ever on the mercy of Mother Nature as they seek to boost yields being suppressed by central banks. Demand for notes linked to insurance against hurricanes and other natural disasters is...
Tornado Confirmed in Central Texas
Jun 16 2014 // Severe weather late on June 12 spawned a Central Texas tornado that damaged several homes and floodwaters that washed away a car and left its driver missing. The National Weather Service says a tornado packing winds of up...
TWIA Financials Improved as Hurricane Season Starts
Jun 16 2014 // Low catastrophe activity and claims experience so far this year have helped to put Texas’ insurer of last resort for properties along the Gulf Coast in a better position to face the 2014 hurricane season than it has...
University of Alabama Researchers Show Small Changes Can Make Big Difference During Tornadoes
Jun 16 2014 // Surviving a tornado in a wood-frame residential home is enhanced by an intact roof and standing walls, but light-weight garage doors can be the weak link to allowing high winds and pressure changes into a home that can...
CEA: Policy Sales Spiked Following California March Temblor
Jun 16 2014 // California Earthquake Authority insurance policy sales jumped following the March 29 magnitude 5.1 La Habra earthquake by nearly as much as the spike in policy sales following the March 11, 2011, magnitude-9.0 Tohoku...
Abilene, Texas, Hammered by Hailstorm
Jun 13 2014 // Up to a dozen people were treated for injuries last night in Abilene, Texas, after a large hailstorm struck the city during a children’s parade and art walk, the Insurance Council of Texas reported. The Taylor County...
Tornado Touchdown Confirmed In Southeast Wyoming
Jun 12 2014 // A tornado touched down in a sparsely populated area of Laramie County in southeast Wyoming on Sunday, the National Weather Service has confirmed. NWS says the tornado touched down around 1 p.m. about 7 miles east of...
Hurricane Forecasts Good News for Already-Stable P/C Insurers: Fitch
Jun 12 2014 // Early forecasts for the 2014 hurricane season indicate that moderate El Nino conditions are likely to persist throughout the year, which could inhibit tropical storm formation in the North Atlantic basin. This could also...
Active Season for West Pacific: AccuWeather 2014 Typhoon Forecast
Jun 12 2014 // The AccuWeather Global Weather Center has issued a forecast for the 2014 West Pacific typhoon season, which anticipates “near-normal numbers.” The forecast also noted, however, that “the onset of El Niño...
Oklahoma Firm: Blanket Provides Protection from Tornado Debris, Bullets
Jun 10 2014 // An Oklahoma company has created a protective blanket that developers say could give children a better chance of surviving debris from a tornado – or bullets from a 9 mm handgun. The Bodyguard Blanket, made by...
Officials: Tornado in Western Iowa Causes Damage in Oakland
Jun 9 2014 // Weather officials say a strong tornado touched down last week in western Iowa’s Pottawattamie County. The National Weather Service says investigators surveying debris concluded an EF-2 tornado landed June 3 about...
Hailstorm Pummels Hundreds of Vehicles in South Dakota
Jun 9 2014 // Sioux Falls, S.D., auto body shops are in for a busy summer after a storm that pelted the metro area with pea- to golf ball-size hail, damaging hundreds of vehicles. No injuries were immediately reported from the afternoon...
One Catastrophe Won’t Scare Away Alternative Capital: S&P Panelists
Jun 9 2014 // Catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities (ILS) issuance have surged to record levels this year thanks to the continuing influx of alternative capital into the reinsurance market, leaving credit analysts and...
Aon Benfield May Cat Report Highlights ‘Severe Weather’ in the U.S.
Jun 6 2014 // Impact Forecasting, the catastrophe model development center of excellence at Aon Benfield, has released the latest edition of its monthly Global Catastrophe Recap report, which reviews the natural disaster perils that...
Alaskan Volcano’s Alert Level Reduced to Orange
Jun 5 2014 // Rumblings under Alaska’s Pavlof Volcano have diminished, but scientists are keeping an eye on the state’s most active volcano in case it sends up another ash cloud. The volcano sent an ash plume to 22,000 feet...
Midwest Hit by Damaging Hail Storms, Tornadoes
Jun 5 2014 // Baseball-sized hail pummeled homes and cars in Nebraska and Iowa on June 2 as powerful thunderstorms moved through a swath of Midwest states, also causing severe flooding and prompting reports of tornadoes. The National...
Female-Named Hurricanes More Deadly But Less Feared
Jun 5 2014 // Which scares you more: Hurricane Victor or Hurricane Victoria? People are slightly less likely to flee an oncoming storm with a feminine name than a masculine one, a new study finds. But here is Victoria’s secret:...
Revised PERILS’ Loss Estimate from Windstorm Xaver Exceeds $1 Billion
Jun 5 2014 // PERILS AG has released its third loss estimate for windstorm Xaver, a storm which affected Western and Northern Europe on December 5-6, 2013. Windstorm Xaver is also known as Sinterklaasstorm in the Netherlands, Bodil in...
Senate Committee Advances Terrorism Insurance Renewal
Jun 3 2014 // The U.S. Senate Banking Committee approved a legislation that would extend for seven years the government’s financial backstop of terrorism insurance. The panel approved by a 22-0 vote a bipartisan bill that would...
